Photoshop eyedropper not getting accurate color outside of current window?

[mazuma]

I'm using Photoshop cs5 on snow leopard. Whenever I grab a color from my browser window with the eyedropper tool it's not reading accurately. So, if I click on an area that I know is #ffffff photoshop is reading it as #fefefe. It's changing the color by about 1%.

Is there a setting that I can change to get the color to read correct? I do get correct readings from within my current photoshop document. It is only reading incorrect outside that window. I don't recall ever having this problem before. If I use a third party app like xScope, it reads the color perfectly regardless where I'm pulling the color sample. I also have photoshop cs2 on Lion on another mac that works perfectly. So, it seems to be photoshop that is having issues? Any help on this is appreciated.

 

[thekev]

It's typically a color management issue. Bringing it into photoshop may help the problem.

 

[citizenzen]

Or it could be the sampling area that the eyedropper is set to. Click on your Eyedropper and look at your options. If the eyedropper is set to one pixel, then it should read what that one pixel is. If it's set to read more than one pixel, then it takes an average of all those pixels combined.

 

[mazuma]

It's typically a color management issue. Bringing it into photoshop may help the problem.

I thought about this and have checked just about everywhere I know to check. Any ideas what I might need to do to correct? I shouldn't have to bring into photoshop. It should work. It worked before and works on my mac with cs2.

Or it could be the sampling area that the eyedropper is set to. Click on your Eyedropper and look at your options. If the eyedropper is set to one pixel, then it should read what that one pixel is. If it's set to read more than one pixel, then it takes an average of all those pixels combined.

I checked these as well. It is set at point sample, which is the single pixel selection. I agree it should read what that pixel is set at, but it keeps reading slightly off. This wouldn't be such a huge deal if I worked primarily on photos, but I'm trying to match web colors.

 

[snberk103]

This is just a wild guess - is there a colour space mis-match? Perhaps the document is sRGB (or CMYK, etc) in Photoshop and the colours you are trying to sample are outside that colour space so Ps is mapping it to the closest comparable?

 

[ezekielrage_99]

It sounds like you're using CMYK colourspace when it should be RGB... For experience it's more noticeable within Snow Leopard.

If you're working in several different colourspaces the colourshift will be very very noticeable, also check that for RGB you're working in RGB (Mode > RGB Colour for the actual file).

Make sure you've also got your proof setting correct, that generally is 90% of the issue. So View > Proof Set Up > Monitor RGB then hit Command + Y

If anything this link should explain it in a bit more detail

I hope this helps.

 

[mazuma]

It's not a color mis-match. It doesn't matter if I have the document color profile set to sRGB or no profile at all.

Just to be clear. I'm not getting accurate color readings from outside of my current photoshop window. If I drag my eyedropper tool outside of my current photoshop window to get a color sample from a browser window, the color reading is off by 1% on the rgb values.

So, if I try to get an eyedropper sample from a red (#ff000, R255, G0, B0) square from the browser it reads in the foreground color picker as #fe0000 (R254, G0, B0). It does this in any window outside my current photoshop window. It's not just browser windows. I'm only using that as the example.

It seems the color should read the color. If its ff0000 then it's ff0000. The shift would occur inside the document if I apply the color and the profile or color space is different from where I sampled.

Sorry, to keep beating on this horse. But, this has become fairly frustrating. It works fine on my mac with cs2. I've scoured over the settings on each and I'm not coming up with anything. Thanks again.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

It's not a color mis-match. It doesn't matter if I have the document color profile set to sRGB or no profile at all.

Just to be clear. I'm not getting accurate color readings from outside of my current photoshop window. If I drag my eyedropper tool outside of my current photoshop window to get a color sample from a browser window, the color reading is off by 1% on the rgb values.

So, if I try to get an eyedropper sample from a red (#ff000, R255, G0, B0) square from the browser it reads in the foreground color picker as #fe0000 (R254, G0, B0). It does this in any window outside my current photoshop window. It's not just browser windows. I'm only using that as the example.

It seems the color should read the color. If its ff0000 then it's ff0000. The shift would occur inside the document if I apply the color and the profile or color space is different from where I sampled.

Sorry, to keep beating on this horse. But, this has become fairly frustrating. It works fine on my mac with cs2. I've scoured over the settings on each and I'm not coming up with anything. Thanks again.

Sorry but it's a colourspace mismatch... It's the same thing I used to experience with using images from broadcast systems like Viz. The colour profile is correct it the colourspace that it shifting because it's mis-matched.

Check the Colour Settings in Edit, check the colour mode and check the view for proof colours.. Also ensure the monitor is calibrated correctly.

I understand your frustration but from experience this has worked for me in the past.